Legal News

Fumo Pays $1 Million to Restitution Before Sentencing

By Brian Harris

As former state Sen. Vincent Fumo?s defense team began their presentation and argument, at about 2:40 p.m., they dropped a news bombshell: Fumo has already deposited $1 million in the court?s coffers as a down payment toward whatever the judge decides to impose as a restitution order.

Attorney Samuel J. Buffone of Ropes & Gray in Washington, D.C. -- a sentencing specialist who recently joined the Fumo team -- urged Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter to direct that the restitution funds go first to charitable organizations that Fumo was convicted of defrauding, including the Citizens Alliance for Better Neighborhoods and the Independence Seaport Museum.

Buffone said the judge could see from hundreds of letters sent on Fumo?s behalf that he was an especially devoted public servant who watched out for the needs of poor, championed the rights of gays and lesbians and protected the funding that supports artists.

Buckwalter expressed some skepticism, saying, ?You?re saying he did more than the average legislator -- how do I know that??

Buffone said the proof was not only in the letters from the ?little people? who talked about how Fumo?s efforts had directly impacted their lives, but also in the letters of fellow politicians such as Gov. Edward G. Rendell who, in their letters, showed the bigger picture.

Rendell, he noted, wrote in his letter to the court that ?Mr. Fumo delivered like no one else.?

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on July 14, 2009 (boomark / email).